Botanists identify fastest moving plant in the world

The bunchberry dogwood. Picture / USA National Plant Data Center

Botanists have identified the fastest moving plant in the world - the bunchberry dogwood of North America.

Tests have shown that the petals of the plant's tiny flowers can move at a speed of 22 feet per second when they open with an explosive force.

The bunchberry dogwood - Cornus canadensis - grows in dense carpets in the vast spruce-fir forests of the North American taiga. The petals explode open in order to eject pollen nearly in inch into the air, according to a study by scientists at the Williams College in Willisamstown, Massachusetts.

The pollen on the flower's stamens is ejected to ten times the height of the small plant so that it can be carried away on the wind, the scientists said.

"Bunchberry stamens are designed like miniature medieval trebuchets - specialised catapults that maximise throwing distance by having the payload (pollen in the anther) attached to the throwing arm (filament) by a hinge or flexible strap," the scientists say in the journal Nature.

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